Risk Disclosure

Retail forex transactions involve the leveraged trading of contracts denominated in foreign currency with a national bank as your counterparty. Because of the leverage and the other risks disclosed here, you can rapidly lose all of the funds or property you pledge to the national bank as margin for retail forex trading. You may lose more than you pledge as margin.

If your margin falls below the required amount, and you fail to provide the required additional margin, your national bank is required to liquidate your retail forex transactions. Your national bank cannot apply your retail forex losses to any of your assets or liabilities at the bank other than funds or property that you have pledged as margin for retail forex transactions. However, if you lose more money than you have pledged as margin, the bank may seek to recover that deficiency in an appropriate forum, such as a court of law.

You should be aware of and carefully consider the following points before determining whether retail forex trading is appropriate for you.

Trading is not on a regulated market or exchange—your national bank is your trading counterparty and has conflicting interests. The retail forex transaction you are entering into is not conducted on an interbank market nor is it conducted on a futures exchange subject to regulation as a designated contract market by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. The foreign currency trades you transact are trades with your national bank as the counterparty. When you sell, the national bank is the buyer. When you buy, the national bank is the seller. As a result, when you lose money trading, your national bank is making money on such trades, in addition to any fees, commissions, or spreads the national bank may charge.

An electronic trading platform for retail foreign currency transactions is not an exchange. It is an electronic connection for accessing your national bank. The terms of availability of such a platform are governed only by your contract with your national bank. Any trading platform that you may use to enter into off-exchange foreign currency transactions is only connected to your national bank. You are accessing that trading platform only to transact with your national bank. You are not trading with any other entities or customers of the national bank by accessing such platform. The availability and operation of any such platform, including the consequences of the unavailability of the trading platform for any reason, is governed only by the terms of your account agreement with the national bank.

You may be able to offset or liquidate any trading positions only through your banking entity because the transactions are not made on an exchange or regulated contract market, and your national bank may set its own prices. Your ability to close your transactions or offset positions is limited to what your national bank will offer to you, as there is no other market for these transactions. Your national bank may offer any prices it wishes, including prices derived from outside sources or not in its discretion. Your national bank may establish its prices by offering spreads from third-party prices, but it is under no obligation to do so or to continue to do so. Your national bank may offer different prices to different customers at any point in time on its own terms. The terms of your account agreement alone govern the obligations your national bank has to you to offer prices and offer offset or liquidating transactions in your account and make any payments to you. The prices offered by your national bank may or may not reflect prices available elsewhere at any exchange, interbank, or other market for foreign currency.

Paid solicitors may have undisclosed conflicts. The national bank may compensate introducing brokers for introducing your account in ways that are not disclosed to you. Such paid solicitors are not required to have, and may not have, any special expertise in trading and may have conflicts of interest based on the method by which they are compensated. You should thoroughly investigate the manner in which all such solicitors are compensated and be very cautious in granting any person or entity authority to trade on your behalf. You should always consider obtaining dated written confirmation of any information you are relying on from your national bank in making any trading or account decisions.

Retail forex transactions are not insured by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

Retail forex transactions are not a deposit in, or guaranteed by, a national bank.

Retail forex transactions are subject to investment risks, including possible loss of all amounts invested.

Finally, you should thoroughly investigate any statements by any national bank that minimize the importance of, or contradict, any of the terms of this risk disclosure. These statements may indicate sales fraud.

This brief statement cannot, of course, disclose all the risks and other aspects of trading off-exchange foreign currency with a national bank.